Carlos Lee might be in the midst of a bad — make that ghastly — year by his standards, but he has managed to remain atop the Astros’ leader board in run production.

Whether that serves as consolation for Lee or an indictment on how the rest of the team has fared at the plate is up for debate.

What was certain Wednesday afternoon was Lee’s ability to impact the Astros’ chances of running away with a game that otherwise might have been tough to claim.

Lee homered twice and drove in four runs in a span of two innings, and the Astros claimed their fourth consecutive series against the Chicago Cubs with an 8-1 come-from-behind victory before 28,046 at Minute Maid Park.

“It’s been so hard for me to get a hit, and all of a sudden I get two homers in one game,” said Lee. “We’ll never figure this game out.”

19th multi-homer game

Lee’s 19th career multi-homer game helped validate a refreshingly solid start by Bud Norris, who picked up his first win in more than 2½ months. Norris’ six-inning, seven-strikeout performance had everyone from his manager to opposing hitters showering him with praise.

“Everybody came to first base saying, ‘Man, this guy is unbelievable; his stuff is amazing,’ ” Lance Berkman said.

Despite a .239 batting average some 50 points below his career figure, Lee is tied with Hunter Pence for the club RBI lead with 52, and his 14 homers are one off Pence’s team-best total.

Aside from Lee, Berkman (2-for-2, three walks, three runs) and Pence (3-for-5, two RBIs) contributed good stat lines for the Astros, who produced all eight of their runs over the final three innings.

The Astros outhit the Cubs 13-7, and Chris Johnson extended his hitting streak to 12 games, the longest such streak by an Astros rookie since Julio Lugo hit in 14 consecutive games in 2000.

The Astros improved to 8-4 against the Cubs this season, including 4-2 on home turf. They had not claimed four consecutive series against Chicago since winning six in a row between 1979 and 1981.

Back-to-back wins have helped the Astros move within 3½ games of the fourth-place Cubs in the National League Central, and Wednesday’s victory was particularly encouraging for Astros manager Brad Mills and pitching coach Brad Arnsberg.

Norris keeps composure

It had everything to do with the performance by Norris, who might have turned at least one corner in his development as a major league pitcher.

And it had nothing to do with Norris’ strikeout count or his being able to beat a team not named the Cardinals this season.

It was about his staring adversity in the eye and overcoming it.

The Cubs struck first, using an error by Astros second baseman Anderson Hernandez to score an unearned run in the opening inning.

Pence tied the game with an RBI single in the sixth, and Lee homered on the next at-bat off Cubs starter Randy Wells (5-8). Lee struck again in the seventh, and the Astros capped the scoring with a three-run eighth sparked by pinch hitter Jason Bourgeois’ first major league triple.

It was the second consecutive start in which Norris (3-7) was victimized by an infielder’s error. And the gaffe rattled him, as illustrated by the fact he walked the next batter on four pitches.

But unlike in last week’s 6-4 loss to Cincinnati, Norris was able to minimize the damage and build from there, subsequently pitching five shutout innings en route to his first win since May 13 at St. Louis.

“I battled there in the first, and sometimes this year I’ve had innings where I haven’t had the opportunity to get through that,” Norris said. “Today my trial came early, and I was glad to get out of there with just the one run.”

Norris was tested again in the third when Starlin Castro led off with a single and Tyler Colvin walked. A double play and a groundout later, Norris was headed back to the dugout unscathed.

“Numbers-wise, it was probably one of his better outings,” Mills said. “The big thing that I was really happy about (with) Bud today was he didn’t let those innings get away from him.”